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A Roadmap for Sustainable Fisheries in Chile’s Los Ríos Region

Environmental Defense Fund

By IW:LEARN

December 6^th, 2018

In Chile, the Humboldt Current supports a thriving marine ecosystem that has sustained small-scale fishing communities for centuries. In the Los Ríos region of southern Chile, sierra (Thyrsites atun) is among the most important finfish species, but it remains largely unregulated. Without a science-based management plan, sierra is vulnerable to overfishing, putting the livelihoods of fishermen and fishing communities at risk.

In August 2018, Subpesca, Chile’s fisheries authority, declared sierra an official fishery, providing an opportunity for what was once considered a “forgotten fish” to be formally managed through the creation of a fishery management plan.

The Sustainable Fisheries Toolkit – A Roadmap for Fishery Reform

Fisheries management is critical to preventing overfishing and ensuring sustainable fisheries, healthy ecosystems, and prosperous communities. While sustainable management is attainable, the pathway is not always clear. Major barriers to implementing change include not knowing where to begin, and a lack of access to management resources and knowledge.

This year, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released an online toolkit to empower fishery practitioners to address these issues. The Sustainable Fisheries Toolkit (the Toolkit) is a set of practical tools and resources to help fishery stakeholders understand the challenges and opportunities that fishery systems face, and create strategies for successful design and implementation of sustainable fisheries management. The Toolkit guides practitioners through the general steps for fisheries management and can be used in many fishery contexts, including in the Los Ríos sierra fishery.

Sierra (Thyrsites atun) at a market in Valdivia, a city in Chile’s Los Ríos region. Credits: Carlito Turner

Applying the Toolkit in Chile

In Chile, the first step was for EDF to work with fishery practitioners to identify stakeholders in the sierra fishery using the Fishery Systems Mapping Tool. In the sierra fishery, systems mapping illustrated the importance of federations or associations of small-scale fishermen. The tool also highlighted the importance of bringing all fishery stakeholders, including licensed and unlicensed fishermen, into any formal management system. EDF engaged with many stakeholders identified during systems mapping by developing the Chilean Small-scale Fisheries Learning Network, a collaborative cross-sectoral network dedicated to advancing sustainable small-scale fisheries in Chile.

After identifying key stakeholders, the next step was to understand policy and governance structures that would support management and the development of a fishery management plan. The Fisheries Policy and Governance Analysis identified a need to incorporate participatory processes and transparency into decision-making. This analysis was critical to identifying the strengths of existing legal frameworks, policies, and governance structures that include fishery stakeholders in management decisions. Chile has decades of experience with co-management and shared decision-making in its extensive Territorial Use Rights for Fishing (TURF) system for coastal benthic species. Developing a management plan for sierra that incorporates participatory decision-making is an exciting opportunity.

The next step was to assess the condition of key fishery components critical for successful fisheries management considering bio-ecological, governance and management, markets and finance, and socio-cultural systems. We talked with local stakeholders to identify current performance across these systems using the Diagnostic Scorecard, which revealed that sierra stocks were generally healthy and important, both culturally and in terms of volume. Despite its importance, fisheries data for sierra is limited – one-third of the fleet targeting sierra is unregulated and operating without a license and market dynamics are largely unknown. These findings highlighted that the fishery is at risk because it is currently unmanaged.

Throughout the process of applying the Toolkit, communication and collaboration between fishery stakeholders have been critical. Through participation in the Learning Network, fishermen and government officials were introduced to FISHE (Framework for Integrated Stock and Habitat Evaluation), a process that uses science-based decision-making to empower fishery stakeholders to manage their fishery sustainably based on their goals, even with limited data. FISHE, developed by EDF and available in the Toolkit, is well-suited for Los Ríos because it is a participatory process emphasizing transparency and shared decision-making – both identified as key opportunities for the sierra fishery by the Toolkit.

Small-scale fishermen in Corral Bay, Los Ríos, Chile. Credits: Layla Osman

A Clear Path Forward

Today, Chile’s government and fishery stakeholders in Los Ríos are taking action to ensure a healthy sierra fishery. This November, regional government, several fishing federations representing thousands of small-scale fishermen, and EDF gathered in Los Ríos to begin work on a pilot project to create a fishery management plan for sierra, guided by the FISHE framework.

The future looks promising for Chilean fisheries beyond Los Ríos too. Fishery stakeholders throughout Chile are using tools in the Toolkit, including in the MSC-certified Juan Fernandez lobster fishery, the Chiloe crab fishery, and through the development of legally recognized fishing rights for indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile. The Toolkit has provided a roadmap for fisheries recovery in Chile and empowered stakeholders to assess challenges and forge solutions. With a clear path forward and a roadmap for fishery reform in hand, the future of Chile’s fisheries looks bright.